Narrativity and Fictionality in contemporary society and culture - tools to navigate with precision

Learning outcomes: The participant of the course gains a concise understanding of the methodological skills involved in narrative analysis. She understands her own particular field of research and the questions it raises about the uses of stories about actual states of affairs as well as of invented stories. To achieve this end, both classic and novel approaches to narrative and fictionality will be introduced and applied to contemporary cases from literature and culture, including political campaigns, social media, research interviews etc. The emphasis will be on theoretical and conceptual precision on one hand and on a hands-on analysis of texts of all kinds on the other.

General description: The widely-heralded “narrative turn” toward the importance of storytelling in different disciplines has not yet led to a focus on the pervasiveness and significance of fictionality. Thus the specific uses and affordances of invented stories are surprisingly undertheorized. Stories emphatically presented as invented are regularly and pervasively employed in political rhetoric, as vehicles of cultural memory and ideological negotiation of past and present, in thought experiments, scenario thinking and risk assessments, and in many other areas of the societal, political and cultural field. What is more, fictional techniques (for example those enabling access to the mind of another in a third-person context) are used as communicative resources in many non-fictional texts. The links between narratives and fictionality are investigated in the course, and practical tools provided for analyzing narrativity and fictionality in different narrative environments. The course is theoretical and analytical in nature.

Teaching schedule and course content:

Before the beginning of the course: Students read three articles made available in Moodle, write a pre-reflection paper, including a project description (total of 5-6 pages), and post it in Moodle; due October 23rd

Contact teaching

2.11.2015, room Linna K112
at 12-16: lectures on Classical narrative theory and recent developments (Henrik Skov Nielsen, Laura Karttunen)
at 16-17: Group discussions on the student’s pre-reflection papers

3.11.2015, room Linna K112
at 12-14: lecture on Narrative theory and fictionality – a case study (Mari Hatavara)

4.11.2015, room Linna K112
at 12-16: lecture on Fictionality theory and student engaging work on cases (Henrik Skov Nielsen, Laura Karttunen)

5.11.2015, room Päätalo D14
at 10-16:  Cases chosen from participants’ projects: corpus + analytical challenges (group discussions)

Written presentations, revised post-reflection papers, due November 9th.

12.11.2015, room Päätalo D14
at 10-16: A workshop with a) the students’ roundtable discussions on methodological and theoretical ideas based on given corpus of fictional and conversational narratives and b) group discussions on the students’ written presentations

Completion: Passing the course requires writing the pre-reflection paper, a tight following of the lectures and an active participation in both the group discussions and the roundtable discussions. There will be no final exam as such, but the participants are required to produce a three-page written presentation where one of the central themes of the course is connected with the participant’s own scientific field and research topic.

Enrolment in NettiOpsu. The maximum number of students is 25. Student selection method is draw. The student has to check the selection from NettiOpsu (Courses > Enrolments) after the enrolment period.

Teacher responsible: Mari Hatavara

Teachers: Henrik Skov Nielsen, Laura Karttunen

For more information contact Laura Karttunen, laura.s.karttunen@uta.fi